HEDGES IN THE OPINION COLUMN OF THE JAKARTA POST

Abstract

Hedges dapat diartikan sebagai ungkapan keraguan dan ketidakyakinanseperti might, can, could, seem, generally, act. Penelitian ini bertujuan untukmengidentifikasi jenis-jenis hedges dan menjelaskan bagaimana fungsi hedgespada kolom opini surat kabar Jakarta Post. Penelitian ini bersifat deskriptif dankualitatif. Data diambil dari kolom opini surat kabar Jakarta Post tanggal 13-18Pebruari 2012. Data yang mengandung hedges dianalisa dengan memberi kode,diidentifikasi, dikelompokkan, dianalisa, dijelaskan dan disimpulkan. Hasilpenelitian menunjukkan bahwa jenis hedges yang banyak digunakan adalahapproximators yang sama jumlahnya dengan modal auxiliary verb. Hal tersebutmenunjukkan bahwa penulis bisa menghindari pernyataan yang absolut atau klaim.Fungsi hedges yang paling banyak digunakan adalah reliability hedges. Hal tersebutmengindikasikan bahwa kepercayaan penulis pada kebenaran masalah. .Alasanmengapa penulis menggunakan hedges untuk memenuhi gaya penulisan danmenunjukkan strategi kesopanan pendapat mereka

Hedges can be defined as the expressions of doubt and uncertainty such as may,might, can, could, seem, generally, act. This study is aimed at identifying the typesof hedges and explaining how hedges function in the “opinion Column” of JakartaPost. This study is descriptive qualitative. The data were taken from “Opinion Column”of The Jakarta Post issued February, 13th -18th 2012. Data which containedhedges were analyzed by coding, identifying, classifying, analyzing, describing, andconcluding. The results show that the types of hedges mostly used approximatorsare as many as modal auxiliary verbs. It is assumed that the authors could avoidthe absolutes statement or claim. The authors mostly used reliability hedges. It indicatedthat the authors’ confidence in the truth of a proposition. The reasons whythe authors used those hedges are to meet the style of writing and to show politenessstrategies in their opinion